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Difficulty: MediumSubject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

Every one of the senior delegates who attended the international summit _______ required to submit an official statement to the secretariat. Which verb form correctly fills the blank?

  1. wasAnswer
  2. B
    were
  3. C
    have been
  4. D
    are

Answer

The correct option is 'was' because the singular indefinite pronoun 'Every one' serves as the simple subject of the sentence, requiring a singular verb form.
The sentence structure features the indefinite pronoun expression 'Every one of...', where 'Every one' is the true head subject and is grammatically singular. The intervening prepositional phrase 'of the senior delegates' and the relative clause 'who attended the international summit' do not alter the singular nature of the head subject. Therefore, the singular auxiliary verb 'was' is required to establish proper subject-verb concord.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the head subject of the main clause
The main subject is 'Every one', not the noun phrase 'senior delegates' inside the prepositional modifier.
Prepositional phrases ('of the senior delegates') and relative clauses ('who attended the international summit') modify the subject but do not change its grammatical number.
2
Determine the grammatical number of the head subject
'Every one' is a singular indefinite pronoun construction.
Indefinite pronouns starting with 'every' (such as 'every one', 'everyone', 'everybody') are syntactically singular in standard English.
3
Select the verb form that satisfies singular concord
'was' is the correct singular past-tense verb.
The singular verb 'was' agrees grammatically with the singular subject 'Every one'.

Key Concept

Indefinite Pronoun Concord vs. Proximity Attraction
Estimated Time:1m 0s
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Topics

Subject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

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